


admiration

by asexuelf



Series: Emotions Challenge [8]
Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: Butch Aveline Vallen, Butch Character, Butch Identity, Drabble, F/F, Friends With Benefits, Genderqueer, Idiots in Love, Neopronouns, Pining, Sleeping Together, not that theyd say that, the benefit is mushy love feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-21 00:17:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21290564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asexuelf/pseuds/asexuelf
Summary: Isabela and Aveline have a talk in the Hanged Man. It grows saucy, because neither of them know where else to take it.
Relationships: Isabela/Aveline Vallen
Series: Emotions Challenge [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1484987
Comments: 8
Kudos: 17





	admiration

**Author's Note:**

> not smut, but it gets a little sexy. a tiny drabble to post to prove i did, in fact, write on day 2 of nanowrimo. hopefully i'll get more of this pairing out as the month progresses!
> 
> if you don't like nonbinary people, please find another fic to read. thankya. otherwise - enjoy!

"You know," It escapes her in a laugh, like steam rising tiredly from a hot spring. Aveline turns to Isabela and shakes her head ruefully. "Sometimes I can't help but admire you."

One eyebrow raised high, Isabela glances up at her in surprise. "Oh?" Sie puts down sier tankard and leans across the table to smirk at sier companion, mouth crooked and painted dark. "That's not the word I normally hear from the people I sleep with."

Aveline rolls her eyes. "I'm not sure why. You are, after all, a criminal and a thief, among other things."

The words are somewhat cruel, a sign of Aveline deflecting in that way she pretends not to, but that doesn't wipe away Isabela's smile. It only makes it grow. "Then why do you admire me, big girl? I can't be good enough with my hands to make you completely forget your morals, o' righteous one." Sie perks up and grins even wider. "Or am I?"

"Oh, shut up." An armored hand comes up and snatches away Isabela's tankard grumpily, the silver of the gauntlet and the silver of the cup two different shades in the dim yellow light. She takes a large swig of the ale and slams it back down to the wood. She's blushing from the roots of her hair to her throat. "You're… entirely yourself. Free, in a way few people are. I admire that."

Isabela's face doesn't change, but something in sier eyes closes off strangely. They grow hard and cold, like dark stone rubbed smooth by water. "You think so, do you?"

"I do. Look at you - you don't hide your body, you don't hide your intentions. You're even open about your… relationship with gender."

Sie snorts. "That's one way of describing it." Sier chair squeaks as sie sits back and sighs, crossing sier arms over sier chest almost protectively. The thick gold plates of sier necklace  _ tink _ together quietly, but Aveline hears it louder than anything else in the room. "What about you, big girl? You don't hide either - even your  _ relationship with gender. _ All sexy and butch. Yum."

Aveline's face is now redder than her short ginger hair. The hair she cut because Isabela thought she'd look good. Because she wanted to look good for Isabela. "Shut up, I said."

"Oh, yes, Daddy Aveline! Be stern with me! Be  _ rough _ with me!"

The guard captain stands so suddenly that the chair beneath her clatters to the ground. "You are-! We should- Let's go to-"

"My room? Happily!" Isabela grabs Aveline's hand and drags her quickly to the stairs. Aveline drags behind, if only because she's suddenly too flustered to remember her legs. "Anything to stop talking about  _ this. _ I don't do feelings, big girl."

"You do." Aveline huffs, very nearly amused. Her tongue feels new and heavy, but she manages, finally, to flirt, "And I'm about to give you a few more."

"Promises, promises."

But Aveline always makes good on a promise, and Isabela knows it. If, for one moment, sie allowed sierself to be honest, sie'd turn to the woman trailing behind sier and say,  _ I admire that about you, too. _

It's alright in the end, sie thinks. Sie communicates better with sex anyhow, and despite the near six months they've kept this up, sie has yet to run out of things to tell Aveline.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! 💖


End file.
